What return value options can an async method have?

An asynchronous method in C#, marked with the keyword async, can return the following types:

• Task — for methods that do not return a result but execute asynchronously.
• Task<T> — for methods that return a result of type T asynchronously.
• ValueTask and ValueTask<T> — more optimized options for asynchronous methods that can complete synchronously or asynchronously (since C# 7.0).
• void — used only for event handlers, but not recommended for regular asynchronous methods, as it does not allow tracking completion and errors.

Example:

public async Task<int> GetDataAsync()
{
    await Task.Delay(1000);
    return 42;
}